Empty Caskets
by Cranberry Octopus
Summary: Unfinished nonsense.  KakaSaku.  Written for the AU Contest, my theme was Vampires.


**WARNING: **

The following fiction provided is an entry into a contest centered on _Alternative Universes_.

If you do not like things that mess with you canon, I highly suggest that you do not say so and go on your way.

However, if you do, be sure to check out the other entries. Thanks and have a nice read.

**THEME: Vampires**

_Empty Caskets_

By moldycookies

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Memorial Cemetery<em>

_9:03 AM_

Empty.

It was _empty_. Sakura shook her head; now she was just stating the obvious. It was pretty much clear to everyone's astonishment that _it was empty _and _it wasn't supposed to be_. And sure, she could also go through the whole denial stage with them and look like an oblivious moron (much like Naruto) but Sakura was never one to be stupid; she wasn't _ever_ going to be stupid. Her eyes then traced for any signs of foul play; nothing, there was nothing.

But how,_ how_ could it be empty without any clues? Maybe she wasn't looking hard enough. There had to be something, anything; fragment of clothing or a hair sample or _**something**_! This couldn't be it; there _had_ to be something. There just _had_ to be.

Perhaps there was some drug residue left over; maybe that would point to this phenomenon. So, as discreetly as any person who was about to sniff the ground could be, Sakura went down on all fours and began to stick her nose in between the blades of grass. Then the doctor bent over more to smell the freshly cut grass. With her butt high up in the air and head whipping side to side, it was almost impossible for the investigative team to not make a joke.

Thankfully, they didn't have to; Kakashi, however, did. "Just because I happen to _like_ dogs doesn't mean that I want every female I know to act _like_ a dog."

A pink eyebrow rose at that along with the rest of its body. "And how many females do you know, Kakashi?"

The older male laughed at that. "You have a point. Anymore questions?"

"_Obviously_." she teased with a roll of her eyes, "Now, the real question is: why are you here?"

He simply shrugged but Sakura knew better. "You know me, trying to prove a theory."

"About undead immortals with an unhealthy need for blood?" she supplied smarmily. The silver-haired (dyed of course) man was a private detective currently investigating the mysterious deaths and exhuming of graves afterwards. There was always no evidence and since Sakura was a good friend of his, she would always come by to check things out. But that didn't mean she didn't think he was a completely ignoramus for going on a wild goose chase. Kakashi was always looking for a story, especially the kind that gave Sakura the creeps.

"You know it." he winked, pulling up his signature scarf.

Sakura chuckled, "Don't you ever get tired of chasing waterfalls?"

"Don't _you_ ever get tired of following me?"

The pinkette smiled up at him. "Not really. I find these stories interesting."

"You wanna go question the forensics team for more information?"

"Should I unbutton a few?"

Kakashi pulled down his scarf so she could see his grin and dimples. "Only if you don't want to go home alone tonight."

The doctor grimaced. "As if, Yamato would probably have an ulcer if I did that."

"Well… he _is_ only a few years older than you." If that was a hint to go work her magic on the _slightly_ older male, Sakura would never know what was.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort but said nothing. It was true; Yamato was only a few years older than her opposed to Kakashi's fourteen years. He was practically old enough to be her father! Another known fact was that Yamato had a thing for Sakura. It wasn't that Sakura didn't like him either, she just didn't have time to pursue a relationship at the time or some other crap Ino had told her to say.

She was trying to be nice.

"Well," she began unbuttoning a few buttons slowly and ruffling her hair while Kakashi hiked up her skirt a few inches. "Time to fake it." with a little bounce in her step and a charming smile, Sakura made her way over to Yamato. "Yamato-san!" Sakura squealed girlishly. "What brings _you_ here?" she asked, leaning on his arm so he could catch a peak of Sakura's red bra.

The brunette rolled his eyes at her generic response to his presence. It was always the same. She would bounce into his crime scene, demand evidence with her loudmouth and he would peer down at her with a tight smile and – his mouth went dry. When did she get that one? He hasn't seen it before. "Har-Haruno-san," he cleared his throat, "You know I can't-"

Sakura feigned confusion and hurt while Kakashi snuck behind them and attempted to steal the report. "You can't? Oh, but I think you_ can_, actually." The doctor glanced behind the brunette to find that Kakashi had successfully swiped the report and was now waltzing toward his motorcycle.

"Well, maybe I'll let you look if-"

Kakashi started his engine. "Oh! Would you look at the time? I have to go, Yamato-san, but I'll return those reports to you in no time, promise!" And with that she hopped on the bike, put on her helmet, wrapped her arms around Kakashi – the reports in between their bodies – and signaled that it was time to go.

The brunette's brow creased in confusion. "Reports? _The_ reports? Haruno-san! You can't-" but he stopped himself short when he realized that they were out of ear shot. His head dropped down in disappointment, whether if it was of him or Sakura-san herself, he didn't know.

"Man, Yamato, you just can't seem to get a break, can you?"

Yamato snapped his head up. "No," he growled at his subordinate and plucked the hand off his shoulder icily. "But neither will you." Izumo gulped and glance worriedly at his partner. Yamato was never good with heart break or, for that matter, girls running off with his police reports. That got kind of hard to handle, too.

* * *

><p><em>Kakashi's apartment<em>

_10:18 AM_

Sakura sighed blissfully as Kakashi pulled his scarf down, revealing his handsome face. "You should really take that thing off more often; it might make me warm up to you and your porn."

A half-hearted glare and a mildly annoyed look proved that Kakashi was offended and probably would not let it go. She always knew that he was overly sensitive about his porn and he would not let them get anywhere unless he redeemed herself. The pink-haired doctor sighed to herself. He was such a baby sometimes. First, she decided to give him an ear-splitting grin. He was not amused. Her next attempt normally included bribery or some sort of favor that he would use when it was really inconvenient. Unless she decided to have sex with him, Sakura knew she would have to resort to plan C.

"Come on," she prodded, poking his unshaven cheek. "You owe me one. I got you that file, didn't I?"

"I grabbed it, didn't I?"

A huff escaped her mouth. "Kakashi," she whined, "I'm sorry I offended you and your porn, but this report might have something important in it!" he just stared at her. Sakura growled lowly. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. Her mouth slowly curled into a mischievous smirk. Sakura scooted closer as Kakashi turned away to look outside. He was surprised to find that when he turned back around Sakura's bright pink hair and verdant eyes were obstructing his vision.

"Sakura-" he stuttered, and then he noticed that Sakura's hand was on his thigh. How did she get so close to him so fast?

He also noticed that Sakura's shirt was definitely lower cut than it was supposed to be, or it should ever be. "You're kinda kinky, aren't you?" She had his scarf. How did she get his scarf? Why does she have his scarf? "You like that stuff, right?" Shortly after she uttered those words, Kakashi found that his hands were bound and that Sakura was on top of him.

If one of his deepest desires hadn't just come true, Kakashi might have been concerned. "I – um, Sakura, shouldn't we-"

"You know," she began, completely ignoring him and shoving him to the couch. Her hands splayed on his chest while she pressed herself against his torso. "I think that you should _shut the hell up_, and let me do all the talking." The gray-haired man desperately prayed for some sort of rescue because there was no way that _he_ was going to stop her.

Sakura nuzzled his neck and purred contently. The private investigator would have tugged on his turtle neck sweater if his hands were not tied. There had to be a way to – oh. Oh, what was she doing? "Well-" his voice cracked, and reached an octave higher when Sakura sucked on his earlobe, "-maybe, we should-"

"-get to work? Well, if you insist."

And in an instant, he was untied and no longer being seduced. It was one of those bittersweet moments for Kakashi. Actually, it was mostly bitter because now he was fighting off a hard on. This was probably the only moment that Kakashi really needed Gai to walk into the room and start dry humping the wall.

Kakashi was reduced to ignoring the throbbing sensation in his nether regions and focusing on the case. "Alright…" he trailed off, trying to get the bitter taste of disappointment off his tongue. He cleared his throat, "what have we got?"

Without another word, Sakura opened the file and began rifling through the case notes Officer Yamato had so graciously provided for them. It was a simple folder with two pockets and tiny card inserts with their purpose and reason written on each front. On the left side there were contacts, the coroner's on-scene opinion and his underlings' opinions on the grave robbery. In the back, there were pictures of the scene, the victim's picture (oddly, Sakura recognized him – they _dated_) and what looked like to be a red rose petal.

Odd. The grave marker clearly said that he died weeks ago, short enough for flowers to still be there, but not short enough for the petals to still be fresh and without darkening. She supposed that a family member could have visited the grave but the report stated that no one had been near the grave for at least two weeks, which was strange.

"Anything you'd like to share with the class?"

"The surveillance stills that they took from the camera at the cemetery – when the grave was dug up, it was empty."

Kakashi adopted a deadpan expression. "That normally tends to happen when _someone robs a grave_-"

Sakura scoffed at his sarcasm and rolled her eyes. Please, she's heard it all from him before; he doesn't need to practice his "newest" one-liner on her – that's what those girls in skimpy outfits at the bar are for. "_No_," she snarled, "I mean, it showed no traces of anyone being there." Kakashi blinked at her. Exhaling a sigh of frustration as her hands rung themselves throughout her hair, the pinked-haired doctor pointed to Yamato's police report. "Look," she grabbed the report, "Yamato-san even remarked that it showed no signs of any living life being there."

Kakashi didn't say anything for a while. Finally, after a few moments of tense silence – of which she assumed that he was silently going over his acceptance speech for documenting this discovery of theirs – he decided to break it by opening his smutty novel and nonchalantly mentioning that he stole the surveillance tapes.

"Really?" she replied with an incredulous tone, "How did you manage to get those?"

"There's more than one person on this team."

Sakura snorted, "So, we're a team now?"

"Yes."

After that short conversation, Sakura and Kakashi decided to watch the tapes. "Wait!" Sakura suddenly shouted, sitting up and arm pointing towards the old television Kakashi insisted upon keeping. "There! Rewind it a few frames."

There, on the screen, was a repeat frame. Normally, thieves or serial killers used this type of deception, but it wasn't uncommon for grave robbers to pick up the same hobby. Sure, it wasn't much, but it was definitely something Officer Yamato had missed – and he would definitely want in.

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Central Police Station<em>

_5:54 PM_

An appreciative, low whistle let Sakura know that her façade was working. As her heels clicked in her wake, she strutted down the pathway between the mess of organized desks, hips swaying from side to side that caused more than a few to glance in her direction. Sakura had always been pretty, and she wasn't about to waste that if she could use it to get what she wanted.

Sakura didn't even bother to knock when she reached the door she wanted; she simply just turned the knob and walked in. Apparently, this was not a good time, because when Sakura stepped into his office, he was not alone. The brunette noticed her immediately and glared. The doctor desperately tried not to grin.

"-believe that you wouldn't let a woman get away with your report! Everything you collected is now tampered evidence! You'll have to go back to the scene and-" the commissioner stopped short when he noticed the other presence in the room. "Ma'am, we've having a private conversation, so if you please-"

Sakura feigned remorse – to which Yamato desperately tried not to snort at – and put a hand to her mouth. "I apologize, but I was just returning the file Officer Yamato wanted me to copy."

"Copy?" The man repeated. "He wanted you to copy the report?"

Sakura smiled and nodded. "Yes," she replied softly as she crossed over to Yamato's desk and sat right in front of the commissioner, crossing her legs slowly as she did so. "That's not a problem," she paused, leaning forward slightly to give him a view (and perhaps make Yamato a little jealous) of her breasts. "Is it?"

His cheek twitched as his eyes remained on his face. "No." he grounded out, fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Now I trust this won't happen again. Good-bye, Officer Yamato."

Sakura flinched as he stomped out of the room and slammed the door.

"You couldn't have come earlier?"

"Sorry," Sakura smirked a smirk with such practice and ease that it almost seemed like she had been playing the sultry seductress act her entire life, and not just a few years ago since she got into this madness about the walking dead and people who hungered for the lifeblood of thriving flesh. "You know how I love foreplay." To make it worse – and perhaps fueling his feelings for her even further – she winked.

Yamato eyed the woman before him uneasily. He was almost positive that Sakura had no romantic interest in him, yet she continued to prove him otherwise – although, every time she appeared to be interested in him something always went missing. The police officer was positive that Sakura was only in it for herself, and if Yamato got in her way, she wouldn't hesitate to use his weaknesses against him.

Sakura slid out of her spot to slip into the spot right in front of Yamato and the chair he was resting in. The pink-haired doctor made sure to keep her legs closed and cross, so not to give Yamato ideas.

Yamato kept his eyes on her face, because he knew if he allowed them to gaze lower, he would not look at her face ever again. "Is there something else you need to steal from me?"

The woman grinned down at him. Even though he was a few inches shorter than Kakashi, Sakura was still short, but the desk gave her a few inches on him since his was sitting. "Nope." She said with a pop on the 'p'. "Just thought you would like to know that there was a repeat frame on the security tapes; you should probably check that out." Sakura placed the ball of her kitten heels on the edge of his chair between his legs.

The brunette looked genuinely surprised before looking angry again. "You stole the surveillance tapes?"

"All in the spirit of justice!" she exclaimed with a grin. "Isn't that what matters? And besides, now that I stole it, you can use it as evidence. Now you don't need a warrant."

Yamato adopted a deadpan expression. "We didn't need a warrant in the first place, and I think you know that." He gingerly removed her foot from his chair, ignoring the niggling feeling that occurred when his skin touched her ankle. Having feelings for this girl would surely be the death of him, and his career. "I should arrest you."

The young woman tilted her head to the side with a bemused expression upon her face, as if she was looking at child who was telling her a ridiculous and unrealistic story. It annoyed the man before her greatly, so much that he pushed away from his desk, stood up and retrieved something from one of the cabinets in his office. "But you won't." she purred.

Yamato walked to the front of his desk, leaned forward and clasped the handcuffs he retrieved on her hands that were keeping her balance.

"Wh-wha-what are you doing?" she tried to flail out of his grip but the only thing the handcuffs allowed her to do was wobbled unsteadily upon the desk. Yamato put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Are – are you _arresting_ me?"

Yamato nodded at her dismal expression. "Come on, a few hours in a cell will do you some good." Sakura thrashed violently against him in response; she most definitely did not like that idea. At all. To his credit, he remained firm.

His hand turned on the knob of his door and opened to the main station. "This is humiliating!"

He handed her off to another officer. "Make sure she stays put for a few hours."

* * *

><p><em>Suna-Konoha Joint Hall of Records and Rare Works of Literature<em>

_11:34 PM_

"You're late." He taunted in a singsong voice.

Sakura was going to throttle him. "Sorry." She snapped, flopping herself down in the chair next to him. "I had a previous engagement." She said, throwing her purse onto the table, not caring if she happened to rip apart some precious works of literature – someone just locked her in a cell with a woman who wanted her eyebrows. _Literally._

The man bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from saying something that would definitely result with a slap to the side of the head. "Really?" he stated, bemused beyond belief. "Did your time in the slammer change your entire outlook on life?"

Sakura clenched her fists, "Yes," she grounded out, "it did." She seethed. "In fact…" she trailed off before adopting an impish expression, "… I would say that it changed my entire view on men. If you don't give it to them, they will literally _dump you into a hole_."

"As much as I would love to divulge into this topic, I believe we have a common interest to discuss?"

The pinkette gave him a half-smile as she crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed. "Yes, yes. What did you find?"

"Olivia Stenberg of Sweden – this is her personal diary." He handed her an old, battered leather-bound book with the engraving 'O. V. S.' on the spine. "She was born sometime in December and died twenty-nine years later in June 1984."

The doctor examined the book with scrutiny. Her hands cradled it with the way a new mother would her baby; it could be the key to everything if Kakashi was showing it to her. Sakura even suspected that he had notes on Persons of Interest – in fact, he probably found some diaries of some people mentioned in this journal. Goodness knows that man was thorough. A thought was niggling at the edge of her mind. Something seemed off about Kakashi tonight. "Cause of death?"

"Typhoid fever."

How did he know that she was important? Why did a hall of records even consider this literature in the first place? Well, she supposed that since it was in such good condition, historians had decided not to dispose of it. Even if she wasn't a significant person in history, she most likely record events of that time. "Why her?"

The gray-haired man flinched. "Pardon?" He pulled up his scarf around his nose.

"Why Olivia? How did you know that her diary was going to be important to our research?"

"Because," Kakashi smiled slowly, "she was just like us – desperately bent on the idea that the living dead walked among us."

The woman let out a laugh, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a crush on her."

The man pulled down his scarf, "Men don't have crushes; they have interests."

Sakura snorted into her hand and tried not to laugh. She failed pathetically. Remembering that this was an archive, Sakura quickly caught her transgression and ceased her giggles. "Did she find anything?"

The man nodded. "Page twenty-three, paragraph two, third line."

Her eyes flickered over his form suspiciously before allowing her fingers to gingerly pick through the tattered pages of the woman's diary. November 16th 1879 – Sakura skimmed through the first paragraph, trying to grasp the writing style and emotion of the person's thoughts she was invading. Olivia, Sakura decided, was much like a woman herself. "My husband had not returned from his hunting trip yet. I suspect that it will not be long until the reverend organizes a search party to locate him. He had been acting unusually strange a few days prior – and I mean that in the most respectable way; my husband is a very intense man."

Kakashi gestured for her to keeping going; so she did.

Sakura let in a shaky breath, "_The blacksmith came by today to ask if he could borrow my Charles' pitchfork_ –" Sakura stopped. "Huh."

"Strange, isn't it?"

Sakura flipped through various pages to find the spot that she was missing. "There's nothing more to this entry, is there?"

Kakashi came behind her chair and bent forward, his lips adjacent to her ear, to read the passage as she was reciting it. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Just go back and read the rest."

"Hold _on-_" she taunted, "– _What I suspect has been revealed to be the truth; this much I am certain of – I would tell the reverend that I fear for my life, but I fear that he would turn against me. My garden had been refilled through as well; the stableman tried to tell me that it was just rabbits. Rabbits do not have that much blood, nor would wild boar produce such damage to an area."_ Sakura almost dropped the book at the next sentence. "_Matter of fact, deer do, but I cannot seem to remember the two holes on their neck. They are perfectly aligned - its victim was a skeleton with an uncut pelt_."

"Like what you see?" Kakashi inquired.

"Of course." Sakura half-stated, half-purred.

"Tease."

Sakura let out a chuckle. "Pardon? I didn't catch that."

"I said-" A book dropping from a shelf three rows back caused him to turn away from Sakura. Kakashi crept into the unlit row, slowly creeping into the pathway that allowed him to reach the book that dropped from the shelf. 'Anemic of the Soul' was the title. It didn't look particularly significant except for the odd title name.

"Kakashi?"

"A book fell off." He called back.

When he got back, Sakura's brow was creased in concentration. "Give me your knife." She stated. The gray-haired man gave her a disapproving look before sighing to himself and fishing the knife out of his pocket. She turned over her hand with her palm stretched out, happily receiving the knife along with a gentle brush of fingers. Setting the book upon the table, Sakura then proceeded to rip open the covering with the knife, pulling out a piece of folded parchment when she could finally get to it. Looking all around her to make sure that no one was watching, Sakura quickly tucked the paper into her bra and began to stand up nonchalantly. "We should go."

The man looked back in the direction of where the book fell and nodded. "Let's go."

They reached outside without anymore interruptions, which worried Sakura greatly because Kakashi hadn't said a word the entire time they were leaving. "Are you…" she trailed off, not sure how to word her concern. They were friends, right? It shouldn't be this hard to ask him how he was feeling. "Are you… alright?"

He could lie. He could say a million other things than the truth. He could rattle off another excuse about sickness and kittens in trees, just like he always did whenever she was asking questions. But he couldn't do that anymore. Kakashi had slipped – he had fucked up their research.

"No, I'm not alright, Sakura. I screwed up."

"With what? It's not like we are doing anything illegal – well, okay, most of the things we do are completely-"

"Sakura." He snapped, effectively shutting her up.

The pinkette stopped walking down the sidewalk. "What?"

"I haven't been completely honest with you…" He looked up at the stars dotting across the sky, "I may have taken the investigation thing a little further than I intended to."

Sakura glared at him. "You've been holding back?" she accused, "and what is that supposed to mean?"

"I slipped up." He explained, "I stuck my nose in something that I shouldn't have and now things aren't safe for me, Sakura, and most certainly not for you. Thank goodness we never went to your house before they-" Kakashi cut himself off and put a hand to his forehead. "Damnit."

"Kakashi, you're acting like you're gonna die – like we're doing something worse than what I think we are doing." When he didn't reply, Sakura looked at him with an aghast façade upon her face. "Are we?" she asked, "Are we doing something worse?"

"It's not illegal."

Sakura sighed in relief, "Okay, that's-"

"But that doesn't mean we haven't angered the wrong group of people."

The pink-haired doctor looked at him strangely, "So what? You pissed someone off, go fix it and-"

"The person I _pissed off_ won't listen to reasoning." Kakashi looked back at her and took in her confused, angered and concerned expression. It was amazing how Sakura could portray so many emotions all at once. He was going to miss that. "Listen, I have to go away for a while."

"Away? _Away_?" she interjected, "First you tell me that I'm not doing what I think I'm doing, then you tell me that I'm in danger and now you're saying that you have to leave?" She shoved him roughly. "Are you on **crack**?"

"No, now I gotta go-"

"Kakashi, wait-" Sakura's requests were promptly shut up by Kakashi's lips pressing hers shut. Her eyes widened in shock as he continued to mold his lips into hers. She didn't know what to do with her hands – she really didn't know what to do at all at this moment. However, she decided to just keep them at her side as his hands weaved into her hair and around her waist, pulling her impossibly closer and nearly lifting her off of the ground due to her shortness. Nervous and shocked beyond belief, Sakura somehow managed to gain control of her limbs to slide her hands up his chest and hook them together on the back of his neck.

Viridian eyes hid from the world as her lids slid closed before she opened her mouth and allowed Kakashi to violate her with his tongue. Sakura let out a strangled moan in between Kakashi's heated pressing of lips and licks. This time, Kakashi did lift her off of the ground.

"I know that we were never really…" he let in a deep breath before continuing, "… but I would never forgive myself if I didn't…" He sounded pained and so tortured; like this was going to be the last time he was going to see Sakura.

"Kakashi?" He kissed her one last time. It was only for a millisecond, but it was tender and sure; exactly what she expected from Kakashi.

"Good-bye, Sakura."

In a second, he was almost half way down the block with his hands shoved into his pockets, leaving Sakura to walk home by herself. Kakashi desperately tried not to turn around and take her home with him – it wasn't safe, not anymore, at least.

* * *

><p><em>Sakura's house<em>

_8:56 PM_

Sakura sighed in relief as she opened her door and closed it with her back. Another day at the hospital was finally over. She had just finished a double shift, and she almost got reeled in to do a third. Thankfully, she had enough sense to say no.

She turned to put her coat on the coat rack and was met with a picture of her and Kakashi. She frowned and gently put it faced down. Kakashi hadn't shown his face for three weeks – he was really gone, just like that.

She padded into her kitchen in search of a tall, cool glass of water. There was another glass out of the sink on the island of her kitchen, the liquid inside of it still cool from refrigeration. Sakura looked at it suspiciously before retrieving a knife from the second drawer to the left of her sink.

With the knife at her side and hidden from view, she slowly edged around the frame of the doorway to her kitchen and towards the living room. After seeing no one in there, she then kicked open her bathroom door. Once again there was nothing. The last room to look at was her bedroom. Sakura lifted a shaky hand to the door knob –

The shrill ringing of her phone caused her to jump and almost drop her knife. "Damnit," she swore. She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"_Haruno Sakura_?"

Sakura swallowed and look at her bedroom door. "This is she."

"You are listed as Hatake Kakashi's emergency contact. I am calling you because he recently passed away according to the authorities."

Sakura bit her lip to prevent herself from crying. "Are you sure?" she managed to ground.

"Yes, Haruno-san, I am."

Sakura let in a shuddering breath. "Well," she paused; something didn't seem right about his death – especially since he was so intent upon leaving alone that evening, "thank you for calling me."

"Good-bye, Haruno-san."

Sakura choked on the final word in her throat and hung up.

She wiped her eyes furiously and brandished her knife.

When Sakura got to her bedroom, she stopped short of the throw rug to look around the room. Something wasn't right. Firstly, her fan was now facing her mirror instead of her bed like it normally does. Secondly, the comforter that her college roommate forced her to buy was freshly rumpled, and thirdly, her curtains were not completely drawn shut as she left them before. The doctor finally noticed that her closet door was a crack open.

She tensed up for a moment before becoming down-right pissed off at whomever thought they could just jump across her bed and hide in her closet. Furiously, Sakura stomped over to her closet (but not before pulling out a baseball bat) and wrenched it open. The pinkette was shocked to find that it was empty. Suspiciously, Sakura took a tentative step forward, her gaze glancing over every detail within her closet. There was nothing out of place or in disorder. Sakura rolled her eyes at her paranoia; obviously, she was just a bit shaken up due to the news of Kakashi's death –

A pale hand reached out to grab her wrist. Sakura let out a shriek and swung at the direction of where her attacker's head would be. There was a clang, not the crack that she was expecting, and then the revelation of her attacker. He was around her age, she supposed, and blonde with annoying scratch marks on his face.

He didn't look happy. "Hey!" He shouted, "I'm Naruto and I'm here to protect you, so if you would just put down the bat-"

"Shut up!" she shrieked, swinging her bat angrily at his head again. When it hit him a second time, the bat bent a little, shocking Sakura and causing her to drop her weapon immediately. "Why won't you _die_?" she yelled rhetorically. She picked up her bat and swung it at him a second time.

"Hey!" he shouted again, gathering her into his arms. "Stop it! I'm trying to help you!"

As a last resort, Sakura began kicking and punching in every direction, flailing in an effort to break free from her assailant. "I don't need your help!"

"Kakashi sent me!"

"Wh-what!" She snapped, "Liar!" She threw him to the ground and started kicking him. "How do you know Kakashi?" she ceased her kicking for a moment and gasped, "Did you kill him?" When Naruto didn't answer, she assumed the worst and began kicking him again.

"Ow – ow – hey! I didn't kill him! And we have to leave before-" Glass flew everywhere in individual unique shards. Naruto tensed immediately and shoved Sakura into her clothes rack. "Stay here." He opened the door to the closet and quickly shut it. "Okay, we have to go."

Sakura was about to demand why she had to go anywhere with him when her closet door was literally smashed open with a male body following it. At first Sakura thought the person was dead, but upon further inspection, she soon discovered that he was alive and bent on hurting her.

He clawed at the carpet, snarling and bearing his teeth – his teeth. The pink-haired girl almost fainted at the sight. He had fangs, and if she wasn't so terrified at the moment, she would ask if she could inspect them. Unfortunately, he was not one for staring and he began crawling towards her savagely. Sakura scrambled to the back of her closet, hands desperately looking for something to knock him over the head with. She found none.

So, this was how she was going to die. She was going to be eaten by a vampire. Lovely. Oh, she definitely did not want to see this. Her eyes were clenched tight. Just when Sakura accepted her fate, a board met the head of her pursuer.

Before she had time to freak out, Naruto grabbed her forearm and pulled her out of her closet and towards the window. "Come on!"

Sakura was in a bit of a daze. "What was that?"

"The beginning, now come on!"

* * *

><p><em>Uchiha's Summer Home<em>

_3:14 PM_

Sakura's foot twitched. She groaned out loud and covered her eyes with her hand. "Oh god. I feel like a truck hit me…" She also had the strangest dream. The dream actually lasted longer than she suspected, however, because it felt like she was sleeping for weeks. She felt like she hadn't moved in weeks.

"You're awake!"

Sakura flinched. "Oh god, you're real." She groaned.

The blonde man frowned slightly. "Hey, I saved your life – you should be nicer to me."

"Yeah, yeah." Sakura waved her hand in his face. "So where am I?"

Naruto's brow creased in confusion, "You don't remember?"

Sakura shook her head. It was probably some part of selective memory or something. However, she did remember Naruto, just not the trip to where ever she was. "When traumatic moments happen, you usually don't want to remember the bad parts, even if I do remember _that freak_ trying to eat me!"

"The freak-" Naruto paused to gesture to the male who had been silently observing their conversation prior, "-happens to be his brother."

"Your _brother_?"

"Yup!" he beamed.

"Why was he after me?"

"Because you stole the secret."

Sakura deadpanned. "The secret?"

The black-haired male nodded in confirmation and pulled out a slip of paper which looked vaguely familiar. "It's a secret that could tip the balances in the world if it happens to be placed in the wrong hands, which is why we sent Naruto after you."

"How is it important? There's just a bunch of symbols on it." The pinkette paused and reanalyzed his words. "Wait, _we_? As in there are _more_ of you?"

"Yes, including some new additions."

Sakura looked to Naruto, "You said that Kakashi sent you. Were you lying to me to get me to come with you or were you really telling the truth?" Sakura's eyes widened, "Is Kakashi alive? Is Kakashi a… one of you?"

The blonde smirked, "Perhaps, it was an anonymous tip."

It wasn't the answer she wanted – it was too vague. These two could be tricking her into being their slave or something. She didn't even know them! And they had technically kidnapped her. Granted, it was from some crazy person, but still, Sakura had principles. "So what about this secret? It looks like a load of bullshit."

"To you," Sasuke interjected, "but to their leader, it's everything he needs to take over the world."

The pinkette rolled her eyes at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. "Of course it is. But whatever, I'm not going to be in this anymore-"

The bedroom

"Our position has been compromised, we have to move."

"Oh really? I didn't think so!"

Racing down various hallways and staircases (of which Sakura suspected that would never, ever end), they finally reached a garage. Sasuke went for the most inconspicuous car and nearly shoved Sakura into the back. They were racing down a dirt road and into the distance in no time.

The rear window shattered behind her, which caused Sasuke to swerve wildly. "They have guns?"

"And more," Naruto replied from the passenger seat. Why did she have to sit in the back? She was the one who found their stupid piece of paper! Sakura should at least be given shot gun privileges. "We gotta lose them Sasuke!"

"Just a little further…" he grounded out. The car's rear jumped suddenly and Sakura was vaguely aware that it would be safer to be wearing a seatbelt. After it was latched, Sasuke pushed in various buttons that a normal car should not have and headed straight for a stone wall.

"Wait! We're gonna-"

The wall opened and they were locked inside. Sasuke yanked the key out of the ignition and unbuckled his seat, gesturing for Sakura to do the same. After he was out, he lifted the driver's seat for Sakura to stumble out while Naruto ripped out many different pipes (and the car battery) from the engine of the car. The battery was destroyed beneath his feet.

"Let's go."

"Look, this is all good and dandy, but I'm not about to follow you guys into the woods on some quest that doesn't even involve me!" Sakura made way to the exit, but stopped suddenly when she realized that there was no exit.

Sasuke grabbed her forearm. "You found the secret, didn't you?"

"Look, how am I going to defend myself? I'm just going to be baggage with you guys!"

"You're pretty good with a baseball bat." Naruto muttered under his breath. Sakura shot him a deadly glare; he cringed.

"Hold a gun with two hands." Sasuke commanded right before he slapped a .45 into her palm. "The shells are over there," he pointed to a cabinet, "Grab a bag and water for yourself."

Sakura sighed to herself. "Fine." She agreed, "Do I get a sword?"

"If you want."

"I'm in for some stabbing, especially if I'm gonna be having to hang around this idiot-" her thumb pointed back to Naruto, who was currently inspecting a figure on the bedside table, "-for a while."

"Sweet!" Naruto exclaimed, racing over to crush Sakura into a hug. "Together we form… Team Seven!" His two comrades gave him an 'are you serious' look before glaring at him. "You know… because seven's a… lucky… number?"

"Go fuck yourself." Sakura muttered.

* * *

><p><em>Day 1<em>

"God this is boring – anyone wanna play I Spy?"

Sasuke glared at his blonde friend while Sakura resisted the urge to throttle him, even though she was pretty sure that he could easily dodge her in a second. "No." Sakura groaned out.

"I'm bored."

Sakura grumbled.

* * *

><p><em>Day 3<em>

"… I spy with my little eye-"

"Naruto, we said we were not going to play this game two days ago – what makes you think that we're gonna play it now?"

He ignored her complaints, "-something green."

"Tree." Sasuke replied unblinkingly.

* * *

><p><em>Day 7<em>

Sakura took a sip from her water bottle. Not thinking, she silently offered Sasuke some, to which he just stared at her until she realized her mistake. The pinkette blushed and blinked before putting her water bottle back into her bag.

Sasuke was too much like Kakashi.

* * *

><p><em>Day 15<em>

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there now?"

"No!"

"Can I have a hug?"

"Naruto, I swear to-"

* * *

><p><em>Day 21<em>

"Oh. My gosh. How much farther do we have to travel? I'm pretty sure they won't find us now since we're in the middle of nowhere!"

"Three more days."

Sakura groaned. What had she done to deserve such a fate?

* * *

><p><em>Location Unknown – Soon to be battlefield<em>

_Time Unknown_

The plan was simple: Sakura was going to sneak into the dungeons by covering herself with vanilla, apparently a smell that is undetectable to vampires, steal the keys and find anyone strong enough to fight. Of course, nothing was simple with a giant battle axe (when Sasuke showed her the sword, it gleamed on something else and revealed a giant battleaxe. Sakura thought she was going to die happy) strapped to her back along with two .45 caliber guns stuck on her thighs, as well as the ammo.

Next, she was to go with whoever didn't try to eat her and join Naruto and Sasuke in the fight with Sasuke's Great, Great Uncle. When Sakura asked why his whole family was evil, he just stiffened up and refused to look at her for a half hour.

She remained untraceable as she slipped past the sleeping guard (he was human – all the guards were, since it attracted vampires and allowed others to attack when they were at their weakest) and her feet padded quickly across the stone floor. She was so close. Suddenly, she was met with a hall of cells.

This was it.

If there was someone alive in any of these cells, they weren't awake at the moment. To her left, someone moaned out in pain. Sakura ran to the cell. She paused, "You cannot attack me, got it?" Just in case, she took out her gun – Sasuke said to use it with two hands, but sometimes she had to improvise. She put the key in the hole and turned it. After hearing the click, she slowly pushed the cell door open.

"Alright, come with me-"

The captive immediately lunged at her. Sakura fell backwards and aimed her gun, ready to fire but someone else lunged at her attacker and threw them into a wall. "You shouldn't be here." Sakura recognized that voice.

"Kakashi?"

Despite his better judgment, he cupped her cheek with his large hand, just to see if she was real and that this wasn't another delusion. "Sakura…" he trailed off, seeing that she was more than fully prepared to break him out and fight off anyone who tried to get close to her. "Next time you decided to open a cell door, bring a flashlight so you can see your prisoner."

"Right." She rolled her eyes, "I'll remember that for the next time I have to come to some remote evil castle to rescue you." He did not look amused. "Here," she gestured to the bag in her hand, "it's full of stakes and there's a sword in there, too."

"Thanks." He replied, "Now let's go." They exchanged looks. Things were left unsaid, but not for much longer. When the battle was over, and if they were still alive – they would have a talk then. When they got upstairs, a battle was in full swing and Kakashi didn't hesitate to jump into the fray.

The pinkette swung the axe off of her shoulder, splitting an enemy in half. "I love this thing!" She swung at another person, this time chopping his right shoulder and head off. In the distance, she could see Sasuke and Naruto fighting an older man that kind of resembled Sasuke. Sakura assumed that he was Sasuke's evil uncle.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was busy fighting off the last of his minions, and Sakura couldn't help but watch with rapt attention. To her left, she heard someone stupidly yell at her, so she swung her axe at their legs and cut them off. She silenced their screams by driving a stake through their heart. They were all pretty much gone, except for the few Sasuke and Naruto had just finished off.

In the background, Sakura could see Sasuke ripping off his uncle's head; she looked away from the sight.

"Kakashi!"

Kakashi whipped around, which was a big mistake because someone was currently trying to gouge his eyes out with a cross, and almost fell to the ground in shock. "Sakura!" The person behind him nearly made contact with his spleen before his hand whipped around and stabbed him in the neck with a stake. Kakashi quickly added another one into his sternum and heart. That was the last of them.

She ran towards him – the battle was over. Finally. "I missed you so much." She confessed, holding his head in her hands. "Please don't ever do that again."

Kakashi smiled and placed his hands over hers. "I'm sorry, Sakura."

Sakura passed out.

* * *

><p><em>Sakura's house <em>

_11:43 PM_

Sakura woke up in her bed. It was over. That was it. "So what now?" She said out loud. Would Kakashi leave her life forever? Would she ever see Naruto and Sasuke again? Even though they were kind of annoying, she still became fond of them. They had gotten close over the course of the three weeks they were together.

If only she could see them one last time. She never even got to say good-bye. So many questions were left unanswered. What did they do with the paper? Was Kakashi okay? Is Kakashi a vampire? What happened to the person's grave who was dug up?

Her thoughts were broken up by the sound of knocking on her balcony. The woman quickly grabbed a robe and wrapped it around herself before crossing her room to open the doors to the balcony. "Kakashi!" Sakura had to prevent her face from splitting in half. "I thought you left…"

"Never left," he replied, "just had to be sure… of some things."

Sakura scoffed at him and hit him on the head. He gave her a reproachful look, "Oh you deserved it." His answer was a typical Kakashi answer; vague yet assuming, puzzling yet to the point. "Also, what kind of things?"

"To make sure things were put into the right hands."

"Just one more question."

At this point, he looked exasperated, "Of course, Sakura."

"Are you a vampire?" she asked, slightly afraid of what his answer might be, regardless of what logic was telling her. Of course Kakashi was a vampire. It was written all over their situation, and it completely made sense.

He grinned. He had changed – they both had. She supposed that being stuck in the woods with two idiots while also being hunted down by an angry hoard of vampires was a bit tiring and life changing. "Want to find out?"

Sakura allowed her lips to spread into a grin that stretched across her face. "Wanna come inside?" She inquired as she slid her fingers into his messy hair. Her hand moved with his head as he shook it. The pinkette frowned and tilted her head to the side. When she was about to ask just _what_ he wanted to do, he soothed all her inquiries by covering her lips with his.

"I know other tricks, too."

Sakura snorted into her hand and tried not to smack him upside the head; he was almost dangling off of her balcony after all. Without warning, he planted another kiss on the corner of her lips. "Thanks for letting me know." She teased as Kakashi pulled her by the wrist to get her closer, thus gaining access for another kiss.

* * *

><p>The End<p> 


End file.
